2017 Murrows Entry - News Series: Gerrymandering in New Hampshire

New Hampshire's State Senate districts have undergone considerable shifts over the past few decades. One constant: In the majority of elections, Republicans have enjoyed disproportionately favorable terrain and election outcomes.

Entry note: This submission includes a digital-only story and several multimedia stories and autio features. You can listen to the audio entry below or refer to the file included with the submission.

Links to individual stories follow this summary:

The classic gerrymandered map you learned about in high school civics class is full of oddly-shaped legislative districts, drawn with obvious intent to boost one party.

But in New Hampshire, that’s rarely the case: It’s very hard to see, just by looking at the election maps, which districts might help or hurt a certain party’s chances.So has gerrymandering been a factor in the state’s politics? And if so, how much?

New Hampshire Public Radio crunched 30 years of election data, focusing on the state senate. And that analysis revealed an undeniable gerrymander that, with few exceptions, benefits Republicans.

In this series of stories, NHPR's newsroom used radio and digital storytelling to draw attention to a political issue and series of races with a singular goal in mind: to make our audience care about something most people know very little about.

This story features an in-depth analysis of 30 years of election data mined from NHPR's Election database, and includes illustrations, data visualizations, and an interactive map showing the effect of gerrymandering on one key New Hampshire Senate District.

Dan Barrick unpacks the race for New Hampshire's twenty-four state senate seats. With a third of its seats turning over, the race provided a rare opportunity for Democrats to take power. However, redistricting of the state would make that outcome unlikely despite the fact that New Hampshire was expected to go for Democrats at the top of the ticket. So, how should candidates run their campaigns?

Redistricting means there are very few true swing districts in New Hampshire's state senate. As Natasha Haverty reports, the race in District 24 was in many ways a reflection of the forces shaping the state's politics...and so were the candidates on the ballot.

Digital reporter Casey McDermott analyzes the impact of redistricting in a follow-up story after the 2016 statewide election. Includes a radio two-way and updated data visualizations reflecting the 2016 results.

Listen to the audio submission by clicking the play button below, or refer to the file included with the entry.

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Montage of stories about gerrymandering and the New Hampshire State Senate.